Removal of old bridge piers completed at site of Amtrak’s new Susquehanna River Bridge

 

(Trains) An Amtrak contractor has completed the removal of 10 bridge piers dating to 1866 from the Susquehanna River, a required move in advance of construction of new bridges connecting Havre de Grace and Perryville, Md. Continued

Saving History With Sandbags: Climate Change Threatens the Smithsonian

(NYTimes) ... Eleven palatial Smithsonian museums and galleries form a ring around the National Mall, the grand two-mile park lined with elms that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol. But that land was once marsh. And as the planet warms, the buildings face two threats. Rising seas will eventually push in water from the tidal Potomac River and submerge parts of the Mall, scientists say. More immediately, increasingly heavy rainstorms threaten the museums and their priceless holdings, particularly since many are stored in basements. Continued

'Ma & Pa' historical group to purchase land

Photo: MDRails

(Trains Magazine) MUDDY CREEK FORKS, Pa. – The Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad Preservation Society, which operates the Ma & Pa Railroad Heritage Village in southern York County, Pa., announced that it plans to buy 6.67 acres along it railroad right of way and has begun fund-raising. The closing on the purchase is planned for late April.
The property, at High Rock, is about half a mile north of society headquarters at Muddy Creek Forks. Craig Sansonetti, president of the society, told Trains there are three reasons the group wants this site. Continued

Aberdeen mayor promises continued city help with restoration of historic B&O station

(The Aegis) Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady pledged this week that the city would continue to support the ongoing community project to restore the historic B&O Railroad station off West Bel Air Avenue.
"The City of Aberdeen wants to see it done as much as you do," McGrady told Bob Tarring, who is the head of an ad hoc citizen committee formed to oversee the restoration, as Tarring and his associates gave the mayor and City Council an update Monday.
Tarring, along with Rick Herbig, of the Historical Society of Harford County Board of Trustees, and Jon Livezey, treasurer for the Aberdeen Room Archives and Museum, provided the update during Monday's city council meeting. Continued

Harford officials hope to preserve historic Bel Air house, golf course barn being dismantled

 

(Aegis) Harford County officials and the Historical Society of Harford County are working to move and preserve the historic Joesting-Gorsuch House, which had been slated for demolition to make way for five new houses to be built on the north side of the Winters Run Golf Club property near Bel Air.
The historic red barn next to the house is being dismantled this week, however, as golf club officials and Forest Hill home builder Gemcraft Homes go through the final stages of obtaining county approval to build the new houses on nearly 12 acres off of North Tollgate Road near the club entrance.
The Joesting-Gorsuch House dates to the 1730s, making it one of the oldest standing structures in Harford County. Continued

Budget Cuts Hobble Library of Congress

 

(NYTimes) ... Just as military contractors, air traffic controllers and federal workers are coping with the grim results of a partisan impasse over the federal deficit, the Library of Congress, whose services range from copyrighting written works — whether famous novels or poems scribbled on napkins — to the collection, preservation and digitalization of millions of books, photographs, maps and other materials, faces deep cuts that threaten its historic mission. Continued

Author Rita Mae Brown talks about preserving history

 

(YDR) York, PA - Author Rita Mae Brown believes the past is prologue. If you don't know where you came from, you don't know where you're going.
That's why Brown, who grew up in the Hanover area, believes a Revolutionary War prison camp in Springettsbury Township should be preserved.
"It's such an important part of our history," she said during a phone interview this week. Continued

Drawings by a long-dead soldier to assist Camp Security fundraising efforts

York, PA (YDR) Friends of Camp Security are hoping that a man who's been dead for 183 years will help them raise money to purchase the site of the Revolutionary War prison camp.
Sgt. Roger Lamb, an Irishman who served with a regiment of Welsh riflemen during the Revolutionary War, was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 and eventually -- two escapes later -- wound up incarcerated with other British prisoners at Camp Security.
Lamb wrote about his incarceration in his memoirs. His notes -- or perhaps manuscript -- include drawings of the camp and depictions of his eventual escape. Continued

York County farm preservation has less money to spend, but a new idea might net more land

(YDR) York, PA - Sally Barnes and her husband, Casey, don't ever want their land turned into a development, with dozens of houses replacing pasture, hay and woodland.
Both of them have full-time jobs, but they wake up early to care for the horses they breed and raise on the land. Some of the land they rent to a farmer who makes hay. They live there, too.
"I think it's a very unspoiled little secret of York County," said Sally, 34.
Their 35 acres in York Township sit a little more than three miles from a Giant supermarket in Windsor Township, and closer than that to a high school. Continued

Ma & Pa Railroad artifacts, photos, documents sought by preservation group

 

(Aegis) A new effort is under way to preserve the history of the iconic Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad that ran through the heart of Harford County more than 50 years ago.
A group responsible for the annual Maryland & Pennsylvania Month celebration in Delta, Pa., has begun a drive to locate, acquire, authenticate, preserve and display material relating to the Ma & Pa Railroad and its predecessors.
"So much material relating to the railroad's history has already been lost that steps must be taken to prevent further losses," Jerome Murphy, a Fork resident who is a member of the group and a collector of Ma & Pa photographs and documents, said. Continued

Aged grist mill awaits scarce federal funds

(Baltimore Sun) PERRYVILLE, Maryland — A 250-year-old grist mill near the mouth of the Susquehanna River has sat mostly vacant since the end of the Civil War, its thick stone walls serving no purpose but the protection of a few old tools.
Though the building is historic — it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places decades ago — it is uncelebrated and receives few visitors. While many old mills are being restored, plans to develop the Cecil County property have stalled.
The lack of interest in the old mill is partly due to its owner: the federal government. Continued

Live in a lighthouse on Chesapeake Bay

(NBC) Wanted: A homeowner with a dedication to history and lighthouses, willing to do a little renovation and, of course, live in a home set three miles offshore.
Unlike other lighthouses, the Wolf Trap Light Station is not firmly anchored to a rocky shore, but set out in Chesapeake Bay. Built in 1894, the Mathews lighthouse is a "caisson-style" lighthouse, which means it was constructed to withstand ice flows and whatever else the Atlantic Ocean throws that way. Continued

Friends of Camp Security need $400,000 by May

 

(YDR) Friends of Camp Security need to raise about $400,000 by May to help pay for a 47-acre property where historians believe a Revolutionary War prison camp once stood. The Conservation Fund bought the parcel off of Locust Grove Road in Springettsbury Township earlier this year from local developer Timothy Pasch, who had put the land up for sale. It ended a more than decade-long fight over whether the land would be preserved or become a housing development.
The total cost of the project came in around $1.05 million. Continued

Tiffany-designed church interior a Baltimore landmark candidate

Louis Comfort Tiffany

(Baltimore Sun) More than a few East Coast buildings contain a Tiffany stained-glass window or two. But one structure in Baltimore can boast much more — a complete interior created by the famed designer, Louis Comfort Tiffany.
St. Mark's Lutheran Church on St. Paul Street is considered such an exceptional example of Tiffany's work that it has been recommended for designation as a Baltimore landmark. Only one other city building — the Senator Theatre — has an interior that was singled out for landmark status.
"St. Mark's is one of only a few intact Tiffany-designed interiors left in the world," said Lauren Schiszik, preservation planner and landmarks coordinator with Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. "It's a glorious example of Tiffany's vision, and it's all there." Continued

Stewartstown Railroad line abandoned by federal board

 

(YDR) A federal board ruled Friday that it has granted the abandonment of the 7.4-mile line of the 127-year-old Stewartstown Railroad.
The estate of George M. Hart had asked the Federal Surface Transportation Board to declare the railroad abandoned. It's a step the estate needed to take so that it can foreclose on the railroad to collect a $350,000 debt the railroad owed to Hart.
The federal board ruled that the record does not show a credible need to keep the line in the national rail transportation system, the ruling states. The Stewartstown Railroad Company is unlikely to restore rail service on the line. Continued

Harvest Moon Dinner and Auction to Benefit the Harford Land Trust

(Aegis/Sun) The Harford Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that helps protect farms and forests and create community parks in Harford County, will hold its first Harvest Moon Dinner and Auction fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Bel Air Reckord Armory. The Harvest Moon Dinner and Auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. with live entertainment from The Wallis Brothers Band with Dar Coomes, cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a silent auction that will continue throughout the evening.
Dinner will be served promptly at 6:45 p.m. and will consist of seasonal and local menu items, including a preset salad bar, pasta station, carving station and seafood station provided by MacGregor's Restaurant of Havre de Grace. A live auction will follow dinner at 8 p.m. Continued

Historic Navy ships dear to US veterans but costly for museums

MOUNT PLEASANT, South Carolina (NBC) The Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, a popular tourist spot in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor, is facing the same challenge as other U.S. Navy ship museums: keeping retired, once-storied warships afloat.
Its World War Two destroyer, the USS Laffey, just had a nearly $13 million restoration. The almost 70-year-old World War Two aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, will need eventual repairs at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
The USS Clamagore, a 1945 submarine at a dock nearby, could roll over in the next hurricane without extensive work to shore up its hull. While a veterans' group tries to raise enough money to save the sub, museum officials are making plans to have it towed to sea and turned into an artificial reef. Continued

Photo: SS John W. Brown on the Great Lakes in 2000. John W. Brown is one of only two surviving World War II Liberty Ships, the other being the SS Jeremiah O'Brien. (Wikipedia)

Efforts to preserve Stewartstown Railroad focus on fund raising

(YDR) Friends of the Stewartstown Railroad, an independent group, is pursuing its fund raising effort that began in 2009.
More recently, the railroad company has expanded that effort to PayPal, in its efforts to use the magic of the Internet to save the 128-year-old railroad.
In addition, a group is being formed to loan money to the railroad, loans that would be secured by its assets. The idea would be to allow the company at least five years to begin showing a profit. Continued

Maryland House's historic art to be preserved, but won't return

(Aegis) The Maryland House on I-95 near Aberdeen may be known more for its fast food and bevy of bathrooms than for fine artwork, but its murals portraying Maryland history, that have adorned the travel plaza for more than 40 years, have a significant history of their own.
When the Maryland House went into what will be at least a one-year hibernation this past weekend, so did the mural pieces done by artist William A. Smith that depict significant events in Maryland's history and have long hung around the building.
The Maryland Transportation Authority says it is working to ensure the mural panels will survive the plaza's demolition and reconstruction. They will not, however, be a part of the new Maryland House. Continued

Group hopes to restore Peale Museum into history, architecture center

(Baltimore Sun) After being closed to the public for nearly two decades, a new day may be dawning for the Peale Museum on Holliday Street if its planned restoration as the Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture comes to fruition.
"I think it has lots of significance to Baltimore. It had been the city's first City Hall, an African-American school and where gas illumination was used by a company that eventually became BGE," said Walter Schamu, a partner in the firm of Schamu, Machowski, Grego Architects, which prepared restoration plans with consulting architect James T. Wollon Jr.
... Rembrandt Peale, the son of Maryland-born artist, naturalist and inventor Charles Willson Peale, commissioned Robert Cary Long to design a home for Peale's Baltimore Museum so he could display for the public his collections of paintings; American Indian and military artifacts; and stuffed birds, animals and fish.
The opening of the museum couldn't have come at a worse time — scarcely a month before the British bombardment of Baltimore on Sept. 13 and 14, 1814. Continued